Pre-production

I fell behind schedule with my illustrations  I have made some cut outs of David Cameron one including him holding a pint of ale. With some more time spent on my production I will be ready to shoot my short just before the college half term.

Update on my animation...

I have previously designed an original storyboard on A2 track card, I will include photos of this soon. I have also been collecting used newspapers to cut out pictures of politicians and present day figure heads to include in my animation. I have used the website www.dafont.com to find a font for the title screen, I then enlarged the text size for the preview option and cut and paste the text into a pdf. document.  I am also going to include a few frames in homage to Jonathan Heartfield depicting the Giraffe eating David Cameron and spewing out money and bankers.

The Idea behind My Stop-Motion Animation Short...

I have decided that I will use both cut-out and illustration techniques to design my animation short. The general premise of my animation will be based on The Flaming Lips song 'This Here Giraffe' I will target my animation at a younger audience and tell the story of a tourist who meets a giraffe whilst bird watching.

I believe the sole reason I chose this song was not due to its child-like lyrical content, but the bass line! I know it sounds silly but bass-lines often produce good ideas, at least in my case. 

Things I will remember to include in my animation:

• Protagonists - 'Ace' and 'Giraffe'
• Antagonists - The Westboro Baptist Church,
  State Police, Thought Police...
• Colour prints
• Handwriting
• A bird
• Explosions
• Credits, crediting the cultural heroes that will feature

I will use the following software programmes: iStopMotion, iStopMovie

I will use the following tools: one kodak printer, A4 paper, scissors, gel pens, black matte paper

Time Lapse Photography

Time Lapse Photography is a technique made up of hours upon hours worth of pictures, once recorded the pictures are compressed into a film. Time Lapse usually operates at 24-30 frames per second but in Time Lapse Photography the rate of pictures taken is usually at 1 frame per every 30-60 seconds, for example if it takes the sun 12 hours to set, you'd have around 720 photos, if you compress those photos to a video at a rate of 24fps the sun would rise and set in just 30 seconds.
When the the footage is played in real time, it appears as though the subject(s) are moving incredibly fast as with the shadows or growth of subjects over a period of time, this can be seen particularly in plants. Some common motifs are sunrise and sunset, ice melting, cloud movement, star movement, plants growing, people and cars moving in the street.

This technique has been used in both feature films and television, most notably David Attenborough's BBC programmes Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and Life but more exclusively Attenborough's 'The Private Life of Plants' (1995) the technique also features heavily in BBC one's 'Life'.

My 30 Second Animation...

We were given our assignment to create a 30 second animation, my method of animation will be cut out and illustration, which I believe will work well together both visually and conceptually.

Ihave decided my animation will be based around the song 'Bees' by Ty Segall. I would like to use contrast of both bright colours and dark colours, to signify good and evil.

The short story will include a boy following a girl through a dangerous dystopian landscape. I will include some real life figures ideas of the figures to include in this animation so far are Bill Hicks, Claudia Winkleman, Mother Theresa, Christopher Hitchens, Pope John Paul II, David Cameron and Barrack Obama. Eventually the girl and boy grow wings and fly towards the horizon away from the madness that surrounds them. Ideas for scenery include, people, skyscrapers, authority, tanks, guns, fires, sun flowers, birds, cats and trees.


I looked to Terry Gilliam for visual influence, I think in his 1974 short 'The Miracle of Flight' his illustration is bold and I like his use of colour. The plot is based on an inventor who wants to discover how to make humans fly (its set in the 16th century).


Terry Gilliam's 'The Miracle of Flight'.

My second idea would be using the same stop-motion techniques of cut-out and illustration based on the content of The Flaming Lips song 'This Here Giraffe'. The animation will be centred on a Giraffe and a bird watcher who journey through a dystopian nightmare until the sun comes and all the turmoil dissipates leaving The Giraffe laughing as the bird watcher is stunned at what he has witnessed.

My Final Post...

I have decided to use two different types of stop-motion animation both cut out and illustration. I think with merging the two I might be able to make a colourful and surreal animation.

I will apply plenty of pre-production to my project primary and secondary research and monitor how my progress develops, if I don't feel my ideas are suited I will change my idea for a better one or switch to a different application of stop animation.

Pixilation

Pixilation was first used by the godfather of stop-motion animation Georges Melies, this was used in his short piece 'Le Diable Noir' (1905) although his technique of pausing a recording then continuing again was originally an accident whilst filming a passing bus on the street, Melies continuously explored the possibilities of this technique. However no one exployed the possibilities of Pixilation like British/Canadian film maker Malcolm McLaren did in his career during the 1950s the stop-motion technique once again uses the persistence of vision to make it look as though the subjects in the film are defying the laws of physics (i.e. floating/flying/skating/sliding etc.)

This is done by taking a photograph frame by frame moving the subjects (or props) as carefully as possible or as drastic as possible depending on the desired effect the film maker wants to utilize. When using an Apple Macintosh there is a programme called iStopMovie when taking pictures frame by frame an onion skin appears this shows where the subject appeared in the last image moving it as much or as little as you want while seeing exactly where the subject appeared in the last photo. By using the onion skin you can see the composition of your last photo frame, this gives you the availability to create your animation with pain staking accuracy.

Using human subjects (or puppets) instead of using illustration was one of Malcolm McLaren's most valuable gifts to stop-motion animation, creating a world of oppurtunities for film makers such as Jan Švankmajer and short feature animator Adam Pesapane commonly known as PES.

 

The subjects tend to be real life rendered subjects that move only slightly frame by frame using a tripod and video camera with the necessary software the pictures are taken and then played back again in a sequence to make it seem as though subjects are moving in a surreal way.